PARIS/QUETTA: French newspaper Le Monde has revealed that prominent Baloch human rights activist Dr. Mahrang Baloch has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the second consecutive year, even as a Pakistani anti-terrorism court has sentenced her to life imprisonment on terrorism and murder charges, drawing sharp international condemnation.
The revelation highlights a striking and deeply troubling contradiction: a woman recognised by the international community as a defender of human rights and a candidate for the world’s most prestigious peace award is simultaneously being imprisoned by the state she has long criticised for its treatment of the Baloch people.
According to Le Monde’s report, the trial against Dr. Mahrang Baloch was conducted inside prison premises behind closed doors, with neither journalists nor family members permitted to attend the proceedings. Her lawyers have declared the entire judicial process opaque and unfair and have announced a formal appeal against the verdict.
The legal team’s concerns echo those raised by international human rights organisations, which have repeatedly pointed to serious violations of due process and fair trial standards throughout the case. Her lawyers have stated that the defence had no trust in the court and boycotted proceedings in protest against what they described as a fundamentally compromised judicial process.
Le Monde’s disclosure that Dr. Mahrang Baloch has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the second year running is being widely regarded internationally as a significant recognition of her peaceful struggle for Baloch rights.
Dr. Mahrang Baloch has spent years at the forefront of a growing movement demanding accountability for enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and systematic human rights violations in Balochistan. It is this tireless and peaceful activism, according to those who nominated her, that has earned her a place among the world’s most deserving candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize for the second consecutive year.
The nomination adds to an already distinguished international profile. She was previously named among the BBC’s 100 most influential women in 2024 and was also recognised by Time Magazine as one of its 100 most influential people globally.
Despite this increasing international recognition, Dr. Mahrang Baloch is currently incarcerated in Quetta, serving a life sentence imposed by an anti-terrorism court that found her guilty of charges related to the death of a Frontier Corps soldier, who died in an accident attributed by the state to BYC during a BYC protest in Gwadar in July 2024.
The court conducted its proceedings via video link from inside the prison, transferring the case progressively from an open court to a jail trial and ultimately to what critics have described as a faceless trial. The verdict ordered both Dr. Mahrang Baloch and fellow BYC leader Sibghatullah Baloch to serve life imprisonment and pay Rs200,000 each as compensation to the deceased soldier’s family.
The life sentence has triggered a wave of international condemnation. Amnesty International described the verdict as an affront to the right to a fair trial and accused Pakistani authorities of cynically misusing anti-terrorism laws to silence peaceful dissent. PEN International similarly condemned the detention, calling it part of a broader campaign to suppress the Baloch community’s voice.
International human rights organisations have collectively expressed grave concern over the sentence and have demanded Dr. Mahrang Baloch’s immediate release, characterising the conviction as a deliberate attempt to silence one of Pakistan’s most prominent and internationally recognised voices of dissent.
For the Baloch rights movement and international observers alike, the image of a two-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee sitting in a Pakistani prison after a closed-door trial has become a powerful symbol of what critics describe as the Pakistani state’s systematic approach to silencing political opposition in Balochistan.
Dr. Mahrang Baloch founded the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) in 2019, which went on to organise historic long marches, sit-ins, and mass demonstrations drawing hundreds of thousands of participants particularly relatives of those who had been forcibly disappeared. In 2023, she led hundreds of Baloch women on a 1,000-mile march to Islamabad demanding justice for missing family members.
Her legal team has confirmed plans to appeal the verdict in superior courts. Until that appeal is heard, Dr. Mahrang Baloch Nobel nominee, BBC honoree and Time Magazine recognisee remains a prisoner of the state she has devoted her life to holding accountable.
